A month up nearly 30%, Coal is still going strong?

The price of new coal this week is not expected to soar as high as last week. However, the price of the black stone is predicted to still be at the level of US$ 300 per ton. However, overall, in a week the price of coal rose 9.26% point to point. In a month, the new price of black coal has soared 29.56%, while in a year it has soared 308.8%.Bank Mandiri Industry Analyst Ahmad Zuhdi estimates that coal price movements this week will not be as strong as last week. "We see that there is a possibility that the coal price rally could continue in the future along with the development of sanctions imposed on Russia. But on the one hand, production data from China and India show an increase," said Zuhdi to CNBC Indonesia.India produced 777.2 million tonnes of coal for the 2021/2022 fiscal year ending March. The production rose 8.6% compared to the same period the previous year. India's coal imports during the period April 2021-January 2022 fell 16.4% to 173.2 million tons.Slightly loose supply is what makes coal prices likely not as hot as last week where prices continued to soar from US$ 320 per tonne on Tuesday (19/4/2022) to US$ 357.85 per ton on Thursday (21/4). /2022). China's decision to reduce steam power plants (PLTU) and develop green energy is also a factor in the slightly cool coal price this week. "We see that negative and positive sentiment are both strong. For the next week, we think it will be slightly bearish to the level of US$ 300 below. It is still US$ 300, but we should expect around US$ 310-320 per tonne," added Zuhdi.One of the factors that keeps coal prices at US$ 300 is the number of countries looking for new suppliers to replace Russia's position. European Union countries are now eyeing Indonesia, South Africa, and Australia after issuing a policy of banning coal imports from Russia. A CNBC Indonesia source in the coal industry said that a number of coal consumers from Europe had flocked to ask for coal shipments from Indonesia. In fact, requests are not only from companies, but also on behalf of the government. According to him, this happened because these European coal buyers prioritized the availability of energy supplies and security for their countries first. "I've never seen a phenomenon like this before in the coal industry. It's panic buying!" he said.The Executive Director of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) Hendra Sinadia said the same thing. Hendra said that currently a number of European countries were looking at Indonesian coal.